Henri Matisse - Souvenir of Oceania (1979)

Signed and dated in the plate lower left “Henri Matisse 53”
Lithograph created in 1954 under the supervision of Henri Matisse pressed in 1979 by Studio d'Arte Perna, Milan.
The work is numbered 115 out of 200 copies (CXV / CC) with certificate and notarial documents.

Sheet 42.5 × 33 cm on vellum paper
Subject size: 26 x 26 cm
Sold without frame

Late work of the artist, Henri Matisse will remember 33 years later, his memories of his trip to Oceania, in one of the last works of his life. : “Memory of Oceania”

Composed from cut-out paper and gouaches, this work was produced at the Hotel Regina in Nice in the summer of 1953, based on a photograph of a ship taken from its window in Tahiti in 1930.

The green rectangle, the fuchsia band, the black curve represent the boat, respectively its net, its mast and its mooring rope. The blue crescent draws the window curtain. The yellow shape at the top left is more mysterious, it could represent a woman's blond hair where her shapes are drawn in white on blue and blue on white. Other shapes are more ambiguous and the viewer must decide for themselves what they represent.

This coveted lithograph, produced under the supervision of Henri Matisse in 1954 from his gouache on cut paper, which is now at MoMA (New York).

Henri Matisse (Henri Émile Benoît Matisse), is a French painter, draftsman and sculptor born in 1869.

Following the example of his lineage, Henri Matisse was destined to become a seed grower. But because of his fragile health, he could not handle heavy loads and therefore the resumption of the family business was impossible for him. He then began studying law to become a notary's clerk. But at 20, an attack of appendicitis forced him to stay in bed for long weeks. While he had no interest in the art world at the time, he asked his parents for a box of paint to pass the time. His first creation entitled “Essitam” is a reproduction of a chromo included inside this one. As Matisse himself says in his Memoirs: “From the moment I had this box of colors in my hands, I felt that this was where my life was.”

He then joined the Beaux-Arts and studied in the studio of Gustave Moreau. Gradually, he became interested in Impressionism and discovered Gauguin, Cézanne, Lautrec and Van Gogh. He then breathed new life into his art, using warm colors and organizing the elements of his paintings strictly. Working alongside Paul Signac from 1904, Matisse adopted pointillist techniques but gradually moved away from them. His canvases then consist of large areas of very bright colors. Exhibiting this new form of expression in the company of Derain and Vlaminck in 1905, he received, like his friends, the nickname of “fauve”. In 1908, Matisse began the production of the Dance, intended for the collector Chtchoukine.

A true master of Fauvism and a great visual artist of his time, he also devoted himself to sculpture, engraving, collage and stained glass.